Reincarnation of power
by NatNatWriter
Summary: This is a Naruto, ey man, Pandora hearts, Legend of the legendary heroes cross over. There is a proper summary inside, please read before judging.
1. Naruto's lives

**_Betas: Tifer and SharetheBook_**

* * *

This is a Naruto, man, Pandora hearts, Legend of the legendary heroes cross over.

From a young age Naruto knew, he knew that he was many, yet one. He lived life after life and he remembered them all. It was in his third life that he saw a commonality in them, this commonality was that he was hated and feared by everyone around him. Now, in his forth life, Naruto has yet to learn the meaning of humanity because all around him he saw even more monstrous creatures than himself. What did he have to live and die only to live and die again, and again?

In this fanfiction Ryner Lute was executed by Sion, Oz never escaped the Abyss and knows his father sent him there, Allen was executed by the head of the black order after they found out he was the 14th Noah. Sorry for the little rewrite, but I hope you like the idea.

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**Chapter 1**

Naruto sighed as Iruka-sensei called his name, the one thing this village did provide the blue-eyed boy with was education. He ignored the stares that wished for his failure and the glares that wished for his death. It didn't matter where he was Naruto realized that every human was the same. No matter what time he was in, what world he was in nor in what place he was, all humans were the same. They all hated him. They all despised him. They all feared him.

Naruto never wished for this fear, he never wanted it either, but it seems as if God wanted to watch him live this live. Over and over again. When would he be able to rest? When would these constant deaths and rebirths stop? He didn't know.

Why did everyone fear him so much? They feared the blond's power. They feared his for being himself. In his first life Naruto was feared for his cursed eyes; In his second life Naruto was feared because of his abilities; In his third life Naruto was feared because of his cursed arm and that he was the fourteenth Noah of the millennium Earl. In this life he wasn't quite sure why the person of Konoha feared him, but he knew he would find out soon. They called him a monster, just like in every other life he had been given, it was just the matter of what monster he was this time. What monstrous power had he been granted?

Naruto walked into the examination room after Iruka-sensei. There wasn't much in it except for a table, chair and a bunch of papers that presumably had other students final results on them.

"Now, Naruto." Iruka-sensei started. "For the graduation exam you will need to perform the clone jutsu, creating a realistic imitation of something... When you are ready."

Naruto gave a slight nod, acknowledging what the jounin had told him. Then, using his hands the whiskered boy formed the necessary seal, he summoned a clone that look remarkably like him. The clone stood tall and proud as sensei studied it.

"Very good Naruto, now can you do a substitute jutsu."

Again Naruto nodded and performed the hand sign. Where he stood in front of Iruka, there was now a wooden log, Naruto however was using the shadows to his advantage. The young boy was hiding in plain sight.

"Brilliant, Naruto. Lastly, you need to be able to perform a transformation jutsu."

The blond haired boy nodded for what would be the last time, forming a hand seal. Naruto chose to transform himself into his first past self, Ryner Lute. In a poof of smoke, the boy was now a teen with mid-length brown hair and brown eyes, wearing his blue and white uniform. He did these easily, it wasn't as bad as having to perform the magic seals in his first life nor was it as bad as fighting the creatures down in the abyss and it certainly wasn't as bad as activating his innocence and cursed eye.

"Great work Naruto, where did you get the idea for the transformation?" Iruka asked, curious. However he frowned when the boy simply shrugged his shoulders.

From a young age the Uzumaki child had acted more mature and reserved than many of the adults. It had worried him slightly when the jounin saw the child eat things like fruit and vegetables, collecting the seeds afterwards only to plant them in the small piece of land he hand outside his apartment. When Iruka had asked the four year old why he did this, he had told the ninja. "Because I have no money to buy everything I need and I have no patience for people who refuse a paying customer."

It was that child's words that had opened Iruka's eyes to the discrimination and abuse the people of the village put him through, and he was sickened by it. How could he have not seen it before? The cruelty of the people he had spent his life protecting.

"You pass." The jounin told Naruto. However the boy didn't even smile at this, what was the point? Most people saw him as unworthy of the life he had, why did he have to show them such a happy face when they didn't even show him theirs? They only showed him the fake mask that hid the unadulterated hatred and, when that mask falls, Naruto can usually expect a beating or ten. They were just as monstrous as him. No, they were worse. If he was the monster, then they were the devils. There was no such thing as humanity, that is what Naruto had learned long, long ago.

Humanity was supposed to be kind, sympathetic, and empathetic. Yet, why did the blue-eyed boy always see rage, disgust, scorn, all of those dark emotions. Rarely has he seen a kind hearted human, a human that accepted him and his 'monstrous' powers. A human that had never betrayed him. The spiky haired boy knew now that humanity was a false pretense. Humanity was just a word these humans hid behind. If he was the monster, they were the devils.

Naruto walked out of the examination room and too his peers staring at him with the same eyes that were upon him when he walked into the room. The short Uzumaki boy never smiled, never gave away any emotion to show whether he had passed or failed. This, of course, made his class peers glare at him even more.

"I bet he failed." One person sneered, almost excitedly. It was Sakura. Her pink hair was pulled back from her face, enhancing her sea green eyes. Of course, she was glancing at Sasuke, hoping that he would notice her if she insulted Naruto.

"You're probably right." Ino commented cheerfully, and the girl continued to whisper among themselves on how they were going to pass and be on Sasuke's team.

Sasuke silently listened to this, wondering why people did such pathetic things.

Naruto walked out of the classroom and as he did, he saw another jounin ninja leaning against the wall. Mizuki. The ninja had been watching the blond haired jinchuuriki for a while now.

"So, you didn't pass." Mizuki assumed and Naruto let him. "You do know that there is another way for you to pass the exam?"

Naruto remand silent, looking calculatingly at the middle-aged ninja. What could this person possible want with him? And then a couple of memories came to the front of his mind and the blond boy had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. Of course, it was obvious that Mizuki wanted to use him. Just like Sion, Mana and Oz's father. That seemed about right. That was all humans ever did.

So, in reply Naruto raised his eyebrow and said, "Oh! And what's that?"

"There is a scroll, in the Hokage tower, and if you can take it without anyone knowing and learn all the jutsu on it then you can pass the exam."

In truth, Naruto had never heard of this scroll, but the blond wasn't stupid. He knew that if he took this object then Naruto would be blamed for its theft and either be imprisoned or killed. Either choice seem appealing or unappealing, after he had experienced both at least twice in all of his lives.

"No, thank you." The jinchuuriki replied and turned his back on the shocked ninja.

"N-no, thank you?" The ninja spy stutter out.

"Yes, I don't like being blamed for theft nor treason." And with that Naruto walked away.

Walking down the street was much like walking into your own birthday party. All the villagers parted allowing the young boy to walk undisturbed. However unlike a party, Naruto only received malicious looks and the dark shadows that crept over their eyes. Everything about these humans scream DANGER but Naruto ignored it. The whiskered boy wouldn't let these people touch him.

"N-N-Naruto-k-kun." A shy, stuttering voice spoke from behind him.

Naruto turned around to see the blue haired, female byakugan user, Hinata. "Yes?" He asked.

"I-I-I hope you did well in the exam." The girl blurted out with what seemed like immense difficulty, before covering her mouth in embarrassment.

"I passed."

"I s-see, c-c-congratulations."

Naruto nodded his acknowledgement and began walking away but turned around to say, "You too. Congratulations on passing."

This prompted Hinata to give Naruto a dazzling smile. "T-T-Thank you."

As the blond boy walked home he replayed the conversation with Hinata in his head. There was no hidden motives in her words. There was no hidden disgust, hatred or fear. That was a first. Suddenly Naruto was struck with realization that, maybe, just maybe, he had spoken with the only person truly capable of kindness.

For some unknown reason, something shifted in Naruto's gut. Was this what he had been unconsciously searching for? Was this what God wanted to prove to me? That humanity did exist. No! The boy shook his head. Sion did the same thing and then he became king. When Hinata takes her place as clan head, she would just as easily wash her hands of him. And the blond couldn't blame them, he would probably do the same in their position.

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**Next day**

Today was the day that those who passed the exam would be assigned to their teams. These teams will be as close as family, consisting of three genin and one jounin. The members are selected in order to balance out their talents.

"Did you hear?" One of the parents began to whisper loudly to another. "A jounin ninja was caught trying to steal the scroll of seals."

"Yeah, I heard. Can you believe it? Apparently he was a spy." The other gossiper replied.

Naruto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It was obvious the said ninja was Mizuki. However if the white-haired ninja attempted to steal the scroll after he spoke to Naruto, how did these woman know? It had been less than a day. Naruto supposed that gossip really did travel fast, especially gossip that juicy.

"Alright class, now I will be assigning you to your teams. You will not be able to trade places with one another and you will meet with you leader after this meeting in the genin training grounds." Iruka-sensei said firmly, then began the team calling. "Team eight will be Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba under Yuuhi Kurenai. Team seven will be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke," Sakura let out a gleeful squeak. "And Uzumaki Naruto under Hatake Kakashi."

"WHAT!" Screamed Sakura. "I don't want to be on a team with Naruto." The rest of the class, with the exception of Sasuke, smirked and laughed under their breath. They were all relieved that Naruto wasn't on their team, but at the same time this relief confused them. Not only did Naruto put much effort into his ninja training but he achieved the lowest passing level. Of course, Naruto did this to avoid attention but know one else knew about him motive. In truth, Naruto had done nothing to them. The short blond didn't so much as talk to anyone unless they spoke to him first, yet because of the adults hate for the boy, the children began to hate him too. It is the order of things, fear only bred more fear, hate only bred more hate.

* * *

Why is he so late? Surely ninja had to be good time keepers. So why is it taking their new sensei so long to get to them. All the other teams have go off with their teachers and now only team seven remain in the large training field.

Finally Naruto heard before he saw his jounin sensei. Hatake Kakashi was a strange ninja. His silver, white hair was held back by a headband, that was also pulled down to cover his left eye. He also wore a shirt that covered both his mouth and nose.

"Let's begin with some introductions." Kakashi started off the bat. "I want you to tell me you likes, your dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies."

The three genin stayed silent, this made the ninja sigh in defeat. "Okay, I'll start... My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future?... Um. Well, I have lots of hobbies... Okay so now it is your turn."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. There are lots of things I dislike but I don't really like anything... and I don't want to use the word 'dream' but I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and to kill a certain man." Sasuke said seriously, not really looking at anyone of his new team mates.

Naruto was surprised by the Uchiha's words. The whiskered boy knew about the massacre that happened at the hands of Itachi Uchiha... and Naruto assumed that it was said Uchiha that Sasuke wanted to kill.

'I thought so', Kakashi thought also knowing about the unfortunate event. "Next."

Naruto showed no signs of wanting to speak yet, so Sakura spoke. "I'm Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is..." The pink haired girl blushed crimson as she glanced at an uncaring Sasuke. "Well, the person I like is... Ummm, should I say my dream for the future... The thing I dislike is Naruto and my hobby is..."

"Okay." Kakashi dragged out the word hoping to stop Sakura's incoherent rambling. "And finally, blondy."

Naruto looked up into Kakashi's eyes, his stare penetrating and intense. So much so that it sent shivers down the older mans spine. 'So this is how he turned out', Kakashi thought.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I don't really have any likes, nor do I have any hobbies. I suppose my dream would be for finality." Naruto said cryptically making all his team mate look at him with eyes full of questions.

"What about your dislikes?" Kakashi asked.

"Humanity."

There was an almost deafening silence that surrounded the group. Questions ran through each of their minds, even Sasuke's. What did he mean? Did they hear him wrong? Why does he hate humanity?

"You dislike humanity?" Kakashi stuttered out, hoping that he had misheard the young boy.

"No." The blond said in monotone. This cause everyone to sigh in relief. "I hate humanity." Naruto said with an empathise on the word 'hate'. "Maybe it is because I have never seen it for myself. I don't really know, but what I do know is that I will not find any humanity is this village and probably not in this life time either."

This caused the first embers of shame to glow in the pits of the three ninja's. Here they were thinking about themselves and their own problems, yet they ignored the more dire problems of a small boy with no one to trust but himself.

"That's enough of that." Kakashi announced, his voice cutting through the tension that had appeared after Naruto's explanation. "We will start our duties tomorrow. First thing in the morning we will be doing survival training."

"What? Why do we still have to train? I thought we did enough in the Ninja Academy." Sakura all but shouted.

"This is your test and your opponent will be me. Out of the twenty seven graduates only nine will become genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy."

**Well, what do you think? I hoped you liked it. Please review.**


	2. The test and the C-rank

**Hey guys, I got a review about whether this will be a Naruto/Hinata pairing and I would like to tell you that it isn't. The closest relationship that those two will have is that of friends or brother/sister. I am unsure at the moment if there will be a Naruto pairing, but I am considering it, and if I were to do one it wouldn't be with Sakura either because, frankly, I don't think she deserves Naruto.**

**Thank you for reading :)**

**Chapter 2**

**The next day**

Naruto arrived at the training ground at eight o'clock, only to find Sakura glaring at him and Sasuke staring emotionlessly at him. As Naruto looked around he couldn't help but think it was an almost perfect place to train. It was a fairly large grass area, surrounded by a thick and dense forest- perfect for practicing maneuvering and covert methods. In the middle of the training ground there were three wooden stumps that could be used for anything: targets for throwing practice, objects to test the powers of a person's punches and kicks.

"Where have you been, you idiot? We've been waiting for you." Sakura hissed venomously. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her frown wrinkled her forehead.

Naruto shrugged and said in a bored tone, "I had breakfast. I wasn't going to do a test on an empty stomach."

"Kakashi-sensei told us not to have breakfast." The pink haired girl growled.

"It wasn't mentioned on the leaflet." The blond boy stated.

"Yes, It-"

"No it wasn't."

Hearing that, Sakura was shocked. She sat down and rubbed her grumbling stomach, wishing that she too had had breakfast this morning.

After another hour of waiting, team sevens sensei finally showed up. "Sorry I am late, I got lost." Naruto stared at his teacher, but didn't voice the ridiculousness of Kakashi's excuse. "Right." Kakashi started. "You have until noon to take the bells from me." Their teacher told them as he pulled an alarm and two bells from him pocket."Those who cannot get a bell by noon don't get any lunch, and will be tied to a stump while their teams mates eat. And the one who doesn't have a bell fails, and will be sent back to the academy... Any questions?"

The three genin were silent.

"Now lets begin."

At first the three genin fought alone, Naruto would charge at his team leader sending clone after clone onto the silver haired man and, when the blond retreated, Sasuke would attack. However it wasn't long until Naruto had guessed that the aim of this exercise was team work, much to his distaste. It was the only logical explanation. In his first life, team work was encouraged at one point but he had always brushed it off and chosen to sleep instead.

The blond boy figured that at what the academy knew of his, Sasuke's and Sakura's skills they 'knew' that none of the young ninja could defeat a jounin, so this was the only real explanation. In this life he was a low ranked ninja and he refused to use his powers from his other lives. If he did show those powers how would he explain them? The cursed eyes of the Alpha Stigma didn't exist in this world, the Chain powers of B-Rabbit didn't either and the power of Innocence has never been heard of. There was only chakra. With this in mind, Naruto sought out his other team mates and informed them.

When the three young ninja finally grouped together it took them another hour to actually get the bells and by then it was almost lunch time.

"Congratulations, Naruto you got the bells." Kakashi told the blond with a secretive smile. "However you only need one, who are you going to give the other bell to?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders. "I'm giving both bells to Sasuke and Sakura. After all we did get them together."

This caused Kakashi to frown. "But then you won't get lunch and you will have to go back to the academy."

"No, I won't." Naruto stated simply. "The test was teamwork and we showed it." With this Naruto tossed the two small bells to his team mates, who caught them.

"He, you got me. I guess you pass." Kakashi said rubbing the back of his neck, staring nervously at the strange boy in front of him. Is this what life had made of him?

After this exercise, Kakashi told the young ninja to meet him in the same training ground at the same time tomorrow, and then they disperse allowing the jounin to go back to his reading.

**Later in the day.**

"Naruto there is something I would like to tell you?" The third Hokage said as the young blue-eyed boy walked into the office. Kakashi, who was also in the room with the Hokage, turned to look over the boy.

"Oh, yeah. What's that?" Replied Naruto as he let is mask slip into place. The smile that the whiskered boy smiled was fake, but the old man couldn't tell. The old man never wanted to look past that smile to the child's shadowed eyes that were haunted by the darkness of the world. Naruto didn't know why but he felt compelled to keep this mask up in front of the old man. To Naruto, it was better to show such a face to a person who tried to ease the burden of his existence.

Of course, Kakashi was shocked to see such a face. Never, even when he glanced at the boy on the street or when he first met with the team, did the copy-cat ninja see Naruto smile in that way. 'It must be for Sarutobi', the middle-aged ninja thought.

"Naruto..." The hokage hesitated. "I promised myself and your father that I would tell you the truth about yourself when you became a genin." The old man sighed, looking twenty years older. "I wish... I wish I never had to tell you this but... Naruto, Twelve years ago when the village was attacked by the nine tailed beast, a hero appeared and, at the cost of his life, he sealed away the demon in a newborn child. That child was you Naruto, you are, what is called a jinchuriki."

The entire room was quiet for a moment as the words of the Hokage sunk in. 'So this is why Hiruzen Sarutobi had called me here', Naruto thought. At least the short blue-eyed boy finally knew, but knowing, he realized, didn't really change much. The boy was a monster because of a power he was unwillingly given, he already knew that. Everyone hated and feared him because of that power or, in this case, beast. The spiky-haired twelve year old already, sort of, knew that.

"Is that it?" Came Naruto's reply, astonishing both the Hokage and his teacher.

The two adults were shocked at the boys easy acceptance of such a fact. They had expected him to brush it off as a joke or shout at them, but not accept it like they were giving him a penny that they had picked up on the street.

"N-Naruto, I don't think you understand..." The Hokage continued.

"No, I understand. The people of Konoha hate me because they can't tell the difference between the prisoner and the jailer. To them I am the monster. I know, I understand."

"That's it?" Kakashi asked.

"What do you want me to say? I already knew that, to them, I was a monster. I already knew that they feared me, hated me. They couldn't have made it clearer. It doesn't change anything. It doesn't mean that I will suddenly forgive them or suddenly accept what they have done to me. However I cannot fault them on what they have done either. If I was in their place, I would have done the same. Nothing has changed, even our deal, old man." Naruto looked pointedly at Sarutobi as if daring him to break the 'deal' the two of them had made.

"Deal?" Kakashi asked. "What deal?"

This time it was Sarutobi who spoke, "When I am gone, Naruto will be to."

"As in..."

"As in, when the old man dies, I am leaving this place and never coming back." Naruto said bluntly.

"Why?"

"I don't expect you to understand, but when you go to sleep you know tomorrow will come, and after this week next week will come, and after this month passes the next will come, and after this year the next year will come. I don't get that luxury. In this village, even with its laws, I don't know if I will wake up the next day. I can literally feel the killing intent radiating off of the villagers. Would you feel safe sleeping that close to your enemies?" The blond replied in flatly.

Kakashi thought about this and he had to admit that the young boy was right. However his knowledge had probably come at a cost. This boy, at such a young age, has seem more darkness than many people see in their lives. And it is even worse that it is directed at him.

**...**

From that day onward, Naruto had acted the same as he always had: Distant, indifferent, detached. Team seven were now stuck doing D rank missions that involved finding lost animals, cleaning and fixing rooftops, along with many other mundane tasted. By the end of the first week, even Naruto was showing his irritation at sure useless jobs. He wanted a proper mission and, on the second week, it was a proper mission he got.

"I am the expert bridge builder, Tazuna. I expect you to protect me until I return to my country and complete the bridge." The client introduced himself. Naruto just stared at the grey haired old man. He wore glasses and a rope that was tied around his forehead. His mustache was as grey as his hair. He looked harmless enough, however Naruto had see so many lies and deceptions in his lives that he saw right through the old man. There was something he wasn't telling them.

As soon as Naruto and the group stepped out of the Village gates, the blond boy sensed that something was watching them. There killing intent just as strong as the villagers themselves.

As they continued to walk, Sakura was the one that stopped the silence from taking over, she asked question after question, if was obvious that she was nervous. Sensing this Kakashi said, "Don't worry there won't be any combat in a C-ranked mission." This, of course, cheered Sakura up.

However from the corner of their eyes, both Sasuke and Naruto, saw Tazuna's head bow down and the old mans face darkened. He was definitely hiding something from them, something that could possibly result in their lives.

Anticipation suddenly welled up inside the young blond ninja and as he continued to walked he felt it. It was like a ripple in the air that wasn't made by any of Naruto companions. As if someone had suddenly appeared, almost out of thin air, lie when a Chain would rise out of the water of the Abyss.

Naruto spun around and should, "Kaashi-sensei, behind you."

The silver haired, masked ninja was confused but turned around to find a chain soaring at him. In a split second it too for the chain to rap around Kakashi had already made the hand sign and replaced himself with a wooden log. Sakura, Sasuke and Tazuna watched the scene in shock. How had Naruto sensed the attack before Kakashi had?

"Shit." One of the attacked ninja swore.

Then the other ninja, who looked exactly the same as the first with black hair, eyes and mask, threw the chain, this time at Naruto. "You little brat."

Naruto jumped away from the chain and sent a kunai hurtling toward one of the links. The weapon implanted itself deep within a tree, binding the chain with it. Next, Sasuke jumped onto the attacker and kicked the opponent as hard as he could, forcing the man back. However he quickly recovered and cut himself from the chain.

'I see.' Naruto thought, 'The arm is some sort of machine.'

"Protect, the client." Naruto shouted.

"Sir, get back." Shouted Sakura, as she stood in front of Tazuna with a kunai raised at the opponent. As the metal arm darted towards the pink haired girl, Sasake was suddenly in its way. For a second this made the enemy falter, and next he found himself being dragged back by the neck. Kakashi-sensei had made a reappearance and, hooked with one arm was one of the enemies, and in the other was the man that was about to attack Sakura.

**...**

After the battle with the two enemy ninja, Naruto and the two other rookie ninja went to sleep, leaving Kakashi to watch the prisoners and guard the camp.

That night Naruto found himself in an unfamiliar place... his mother's arms. For a moment the blond felt true happiness but it quickly melted away. It wasn't real. He was asleep, dreaming. However, even though he told himself this, the blue-eyed boy couldn't stop himself from turning around. He wanted to see the face for his mother. Did the boy look like her? Did he had her eye? Or hair color? He wanted to know all of the things other children his age took for granted.

Yet he couldn't...

When the blue-eyed, blond-haired boy turned around, he saw nothing. His mother's face was nothing but a black blur. After all Naruto doesn't know what she looks like and he had grown tired of imagining what her appearance would be.

"My baby boy, I love you so much." The blond winced internally at the words, spoken in the voice he imagined his mother's would sound like.

"It's time to go, sweetheart." A man with a blackened face appeared suddenly in a doorway. "We'll be back soon, son." He told the blond child.

"See you later, Naruto." The woman said one last time as she walked out of the doorway and the scene faded away.

"No, you won't." Naruto replied into the black void.

It wasn't long for the dream to shift and this time it was of him, team seven and Tazuna. The whiskered boy dreamed that they had made it to the old mans country and the bridge was successfully built, without anymore problems.

_"You have a habit of dreaming of the impossible."_ A voice echoed through Naruto's mind and the young boy awake with a start.

Glancing around, the blond saw that everyone else had already packed and were waiting on him. Kakashi had even given the enemy ninja to someone who would take then somewhere away from the mission.

Quickly, Naruto packed as Sakura whined about sleeping on the ground being bad for her health. "Naruto, are you okay?" Kakashi-sensei asked him.

The blond glance up to his sensei and said, "I have a feeling this mission is going to go from bad to worse, soon."

The older ninja frowned, "And why to you think that?"

"I have a habit of dreaming the impossible." Naruto gave a monotone reply as he remembered the person that had told him this. Lafra.

Kakashi couldn't stop thinking that the inexperienced boy was right. Their was something suspicious about the old man. Why would he hide the danger level of this mission?

...

"Nee, Kakashi-sensei..." Sakura asked somewhat shyly as the group continued their journey. "If this is a C-ranked mission, then why were we attacked? C-ranked missions are suppose to be easy escorts with no conflict."

"Well, uh..." Team sevens leader thought, not sure what to say to the pink-haired girl. "Sometimes mi-"

"That would be my fault." The client, Tazuna admitted. "This mission... This job is most likely outside of your duties." He told the rookie team hesitantly. "It turns out that a super dangerous man is after my life."

"Super dangerous?" Sakura questioned.

"Who?" Kakashi asked looking up at the man, his suspicions increasing even more.

"You've probably at least heard of his name before." The old man sighed. "A wealthy shiping magnate... a man named Gatou."

Both Naruto and Kakashi felt a spark of recognition. Gatou is said to be the world's few extremely wealthy people, but his money was dirty. It came from selling illegal drugs and hiring assassins to deal with the competition. He was a very nasty man.

"So, if you built the bridge, Gatou is going to loose business. You're in the way." Naruto accused.

"If you knew that ninja could be after you, why did the hide that fact when you hired us?" Sasuke asked and Sakura turned stary-eyed towards the Uchiha.

"The wave country is very poor, I could afford a B-ranked mission. If you were to abandon me now I will definitely be killed." The old man said in a serious tone, but then suddenly laughed with fake cheer. "Don't worry about it! You can leave if you want. If I die..."

"You're not going to die." Naruto spoke up irritated by the old man ease at speaking about death. If Tazuna died, that is it, he will be gone. He wasn't like the blue-eyed boy, who was reborn into a new world. When the old man dies, that is it. End of story. "What kind of person would abandon someone who was practically pleading for help." The whiskered boy grimace. The wording couldn't be more wrong to him because he was abandoned, he was left of dead, by people so much like Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura.


	3. B-rabbits scythe

**Hey, I would like to apologize in advance for the time skip, but I do have a good reason for it. I have always hated time skips however I have written this one in because I felt that it would be unnecessary to re-write all for what happens between teams 7's assessment and the Chunin exams. This is because the Naruto I am writing about is trying not to use his past-lives powers- So just imagine a much calmer and cooler Naruto being placed in those situations.**

**Sorry, if you disagree with the time skip, but don't give up on this story yet.**

**Chapter 3**

They had finally made it to the wave country. The group, plus Tazuna, were all at the docks after getting off of the boat that had brought them here. So far the trip had been peaceful however, while Sakura and Sasuke started to relax, Naruto was even more on edge. His mind kept repeating the dream over and over again, and along with that dream came Lafra's voice, '_You have a habit of dreaming of the impossible'. _

"Everyone get down!" Kakashi shouted and everyone ducked, suddenly on full alert and adrenilin filled their veins.

Seconds after the group hit the ground, a weapon spun over head, fast and powerful, and implanted itself in a tree. On the weapon, that Naruto could now see as a sword, a man stood.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Hidden Mist's Missing-Nin, Momochi Zabuza-kun." Kakashi taunted the man, who wore nothing but pants and bandages wrapped around his arms and legs. Then team seven's leader held out his hand and said, "Everybody get back. This one's on a whole other level."

Zabuza just watch the scene with a passive glare.

Then the silver-haired, copy-cat ninja said while lifting his headband, "Against him it will be a little tough unless I do this." And he revealed his sharingan.

"A sharingan." Naruto observed curiously.

"The old man is mine." Zabuza told the team arrogantly. "But... Kakashi, it seems I have to beat you first."

"That is if you can."

With that said, Zabuza formed a hand seal and disappeared into the mist, making it thicken around the team who were now surrounding Tazuna.

Naruto breathed deeply, trying to focus of finding the Mist ninja. He couldn't reply on his sight, just like when he had first came into the Abyss, he had to use his other senses.

"You have eight choices." He spoke and Naruto caught the direction of the sound easily but, before the blond through his weapon, the Missing-nin spoke again in another direction. "Kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, neck vein, brain. Which one should I go after?"

Sakura felt a rising panic fill her and sweat began to drip down the pink girls forehead. Sasuke clenched his teeth struggling to think of a way to hellp defeat the ninja. However Naruto was rather claim during Zabuza's speech, knowing that it was just a distraction and way to strike fear into an enemy.

It was then that Kakashi got serious.

Zabuza had moved from the mist, behind the silver-haired enemy.

"Sensei! Behind you!" Sakura shouted before the ninjas sliced his sword into her sensei.

However, instead of blood, the image of Kakashi just faded.

"It's over." Team sevens leader spoke as he brought a kunai to Zabuza's neck.

"Not yet." Zabuza teased.

Then the enemies body turned into water and reappeared behind Kakashi, swinging his sword. Kakashi barely managed to dodge it but another swing was already coming his way.

'He wouldn't be able to dodge this one,' Naruto thought as he watched.

The blue-eyes boy itched to help but instead he watch. He watched his sensei get thrown into the water and trapped within a jutsu prison., and he grew angry. Not just with Zabuza for hurting Kakashi but with himself. How had he managed to get close enough to Kakashi-sensei to actually care whether he was hurt or not. The whiskered boy had swore, that after his last life, he would not care for others because they never cared for him.

Ignoring the clone that the missing-nin had sent after the group, minus Kakashi, Naruto walked toward Zabuza.

"Innocence." Naruto asked in a whispered voice, digging deep within himself. "Activate."

In a burst of bright green/white light, Tazuna and the rest of team seven were blinded. Zabuza, however, saw it all. He saw the cursed mark appear on Naruto's left eye and Naruto's left arm vanish only to become a sword in his right hand. The sword was unique. A white silver that had green vein lining it.

"What?" The missing-nin exclaimed.

"I am sick of pointless flights." The twelve year old spoke but his words sounded like that of an old man's.

"Power." Naruto asked and the sword flared with even more green energy. Then, without hesitation, the blond brought the sword down on Zabuza, who was too stunned to even move.

The sword traveled right through the enemy, but Naruto guessed that it would do that. Innocence wasn't meant for hurting humans just the evil that inhabited them. So, while the sword didn't leave any physical wounds on the body it left a physical wound on the soul. Zabuza was unable to take the pure, raw power of the Innocence Sword and collapsed on the ground unconscious.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted, she had seen nothing after the blond boy and the Mist ninja were engulfed in a flash of light. Was that a jutsu? Was it the enemies? No one knew where the bright light had come from, however they didn't believe that Naruto could contain such a power, so the obvious explanation was that it was a secret technique that Zabuza had learned.

Although that didn't explain, why the missing-nin was the one unconscious after the light had disappeared, and Naruto was left standing.

**About eight months later.**

**The Chunin exams.**

After their first C-ranked mission, was completed Kakashi had realized how limited the rookies were in their knowledge of any kind of jutsu, so Kakashi began to train them. During those months about the mission, Naruto believed that he was able to at least fight at a genin level. He had improved his chakra control and body strength. This time the whiskered boy wouldn't use anything but his own chakra if something dangerous comes his way.

As soon as team seven walked through the door, it was obvious that they were out of their league, at least physically they were. Every ninja around the rookie three looked tough and terrifying. Some had muscles on muscles, some had tattoos covering their whole body. However the worst thing was the shear number of them all. There could be hundreds, all waiting in this room with them. Hundreds of ninja who have probably already taken the exam at least once before.

"Sasuke-kun, you're late." Ino's voice squealed excitedly as she jumped onto the Uchiha's back.

"Get away from Sasuke." Sakura screamed.

Naruto just ignored all of this and continued to glance around the room. The room was less than desirable. The roof, floor and walls were wore out and showed evidence that they have seen many fights within them. 'Wouldn't want to get caught in one of those,' he thought.

"Hey, you guys. You should be more quiet." An unfamiliar voice called out to the newly regrouped rookie nine. Everyone, including Naruto, looked over at the pony tailed man who wore glasses and a leaf ninja headband. "You guys are rookies, just out of the academy, right? Screaming like school girls... Geez... Isn't that pathetic?" Naruto didn't like this man, there was something off about him. The way he smiled and his his eyes, that emitted a twisted intent, Naruto had seen that before... And last time, it hadn't ended well.

"Who do you think you are?" Sakura pouted with angry.

"I'm Kabuto, but instead of that you should look behind you."

Everyone did as Kabuto said, with the exception of Naruto who continued to watch the pony-tailed ninja. Naruto didn't need to look behind him, she could already feel the killing glare of the people behind them.

Kabuto smirked and placed his hand on his kunai pouch. Naruto's eyes narrowed.

"Kabuto-san." Sakura spoke again, hesitantly as she turned back around. "Is this your second time?"

"Nope." The older man said. "My seventh time. This exam is held twice a year so this will be my fourth year."

Naruto's eyes narrowed further. There was something in the mans voice, it dripped deception. Why would a ninja on his fourth year of exams talk to the competition? And why was he being so friendly? Besides that Naruto had never seen this man before and he was supposedly part of the Hidden Leaf.

"Wow, you know a lot about the exam." Sakura said in awe and Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Let's go." Naruto said calmly but glaring at the strange ninja in front of him. Sasuke noticed this along with Shikamaru but they didn't understand it. Why was Naruto acting that way?

However they two rookies didn't have time to question their friend as he swiftly walked to the other end of the room.

"Naruto, Sasuke? What? Where are you going?" Sakura called after her team members and left Kabuto behind.

Once there was a large enough gape between them, Naruto stopped and leaned against the wall, waiting from the start of the exam.

"Naruto, what the hell? He was they only one nice to us."

"That's the point." Naruto stated.

"Excuse me?" Sakura said sarcastically, if that was possible.

"Look around you, this is a competition. Why would anyone help one of their competitors? There is something off about that guy."

"Naruto's right. We should keep our distance from Kabuto." Shikamaru told everyone, and with this there was no more discussion in the matter. Although Sakura did pout her protest and ignored both Naruto and Shikamaru. Sasuke had agreed with them as well, but didn't voice this.

"Quiet down you useless bastards!" A loud masculine voice suddenly shouted. When everyone in the room was silent the voice continued. "Thanks for waiting. I am Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the chunin exam's first test. Right, there are a few rules you must now: First there is no fighting without the permission of the examiner. Second even if permission is granted, killing your opponent will not be tolerated. If anyone who breaks these rules will fail instantly. Do I make myself clear?" The examiners eyes grew cold and darkened malevolently. No one dared to speak. "Good, now we will start the first chunin exam with a written test."

Once everyone was in their seats the test began. There was only one rule of importance was no cheating, however with they way the examiner empathized the whole thing, it was obvious that they were daring the examinees to cheat, at least that was what Naruto thought. It was made even more obvious by the first question.

Naruto silently scoffed at this and at the end of the hour had not made one move to write on the paper. He couldn't be asked with such things, they were annoying.

"Now, we will start the tenth question." The examiner announced.

Naruto and the surviving ninja all sat up straighter and listened intently.

"First, for the tenth question you must decide whether or not you want to take it. If you choose not to take it then your points reduce to zero and you fail... And the other rule is if you choose to take it an answer incorrectly then that person will lose the right to ever take the exam again."

'Great', Naruto thought sarcastically. 'They are trying to psych people up.' And it worked, Kiba started protesting, loudly. Most people stared blankly at Ibiki.

"I'll give you a way out. You can choose to not take it and try again next year."

After a moment of silence, one person stood, wishing to withdraw. Then another. Then another and another. People continued to leave until there wasn't many left.

The moment dragged on for ages until finally the examiner spoke. "Good decisions. Now those of remain I would like to congratulate you on passing the first test."

With the first test finished, it wasn't soon until the second test had began, and into the 'Forest of Death' team seven went. The aim was to collect an Earth scroll whilst keeping hold of their Heaven scroll and making it to the tower. There was only three rules: no killing, no quitting and the time limit is five days.

Easy right... No, not really. Everyone is now an enemy. Everyone here is determined to pass. There will be killing, that is inevitable. Naruto just hoped that no one's greed would turn this test into a blood bath.

However not even two hours into the test, did Naruto find himself face to face with a giant snake. Its scales were a poisonous purple and its fangs were deadly long. The cold-blooded creatures eyes flashed yellow and hissed ominously at him. It was near impossible for a snake to get that big in this forest. There wasn't any noticeable food sources such as animals and it couldn't be a genetic trait as this is the only giant snake Naruto had seen- then again he hadn't been in the forest for every long.

As the snake dived at the blond haired boy, he dodged at the last moment and the creatures large body sailed towards the ground. As it did, its tail came around in an attempt to hit Naruto. The young boy was in mid-air, trapped and about to be crushed by the serpents tail, however on instinct he called out his power from his past life.

This power was one that Naruto a sworn he would never use, in fact he never wanted to use any of his past lives powers and he had been very good at keeping it. Even when he battled against Haku he didn't use those powers, he couldn't. This one especially though. This power was darker, stronger and would immediately call the attention of the exam instructors and maybe even the Hokage himself. It was after all a power of a chain.

Knowing all of this, Naruto didn't understand why he had brought fourth this power. It was dangerous and reckless. He had thought that he had a great deal of control over this power, however he was wrong. Still, whenever he felt endangered and the suddenly urge to live, the weapon came fourth. Why? Why did he want to live? Life and death never really mattered to him. Every life he lived was the same and every time he dies he will be reborn. So, why...?

A hiss brought Naruto's attention back to the evil creature before him and his eyes hardened, his body stiffened, preparing for the inevitable battle.

"I'll kill you." Naruto swore as the scythes power consumed him. The snake didn't even see the lethal blade, nor did it see Naruto jump down from his tree perch, before he decapitated the cold blooded creature. 'I shouldn't be using this. This world knows not of these powers', Naruto's mind whispered.

As the snakes blood drenched the ground around it, Naruto turned to head back to his team mates. He made it just in time to here Sakura shout, "Sasuke-kun! Snake!"

The blond boy rushed forward to see his team mates, hiding, wounded in a trees. In one swift, invisible movement, he swung the scythe splitting the snake nearly in two vertically.

"N-Naruto." Sakura stuttered exhausted, as she stared up at the boy who held a black scythe limply behind him. His eyes were colder than normal, his aura darker than normal. 'Where did Naruto get such a weapon? What this this feeling?' Sakura and Sasuke thought as a chill rushed up and down their spin.

"You..." A voice hissed. "You killed my snake."

This caused Naruto to turn and find a black, greasy haired man with pale skin and, much like a snake, his tongue hung out of his mouth. "Oh, it was ours." Naruto grinned a twisted smile. Then his eyes darkened, "I suppose the other snake was yours as well. The one you sent after me. Yeah, that ones gone to."

"You." The man hissed once more. "What is that power?"

"Who cares?" Naruto's smile widened, showing his teeth. His eyes were wide and there was a flicker of red in them. "I'm going to kill you."

"Naruto, stop." Sasuke shouted. Then turned to the snake man who was now twisted around a branch of a tree. "Wait stop, I will give you the scroll, just let us go."

Naruto's eyes didn't even flicker from the enemy as Sasuke said this. Sakura, who stood side Sasuke, turned to him and exclaimed, "What?"

"He doesn't want the scroll." Naruto told them, his voice echoing in the trees around them.

The man tilted his head, making a small cracking sound."Hehehe, right you are Naruto-kun." The snake man sang. Then he pulled up his sleeve, revealing a tattoo, and swiped his blood across it. "Summoning jutsu."

A spiral of wind surrounded the man and the next thing the rookie three knew was that they were face to face with yet another snake. This one far larger than the other two. Naruto didn't hesitate. From behind his back he swung B-rabbits scythe and released it. As he did so, a chain suddenly from at the bunt of the scythe, which slowly grew longer. One end of the chain was in Naruto's hand, the other attached to the scythe that spun towards the snake.

Slice. The black blade severed the snake in half.

Naruto just grinned wildly, B-rabbits power consuming him once more. His mind flashed back to his time in the Abyss, fighting monster after monster, after monster. These snakes were nothing compared to some of the Chains down there.

"Stupid brat." The man hissed and charged Naruto.

Naruto sprang into action, pulling on the scythes chain, calling it back to him.


	4. The End or the Beginning?

**Hey guys, this chapter has been Beta-ed by Tifer, hope you like it.**

**Also if you did notice before, I had accidently missed a chapter in the story so have added more to chapters 2 and 3. Luckily my brilliant Beta's (Tifer and SharetheBook) pointed this out. Sorry about that! At least from now one I have two very helpful Beta's looking out of those kind of mistakes...**

Chapter 4

Amazing. That was the only word that Sasuke and Sakura could think while they watched Naruto dodge and slashed back at the snake-summoning ninja. Naruto's body moved as though it was boneless, bending effortlessly to avoid a strike, and then twisting to hit the opponent with his own. It was almost like he was possessed. This fighting style was like nothing the two rookie ninja had ever witnessed before.

The long haired man began to get frustrated. He wasn't aware that Naruto had this amount of power, why didn't his spies tell him such an important detail? His snake like eyes looked from the Uchiha to Naruto and back, he was reconsidering who to have as his knew body. To become the master of all jutsu's and the most powerful in all the hidden ninja villages he would need the sharingan, the copycat eyes. However…was Naruto's jutsu something that could be copied? He had never seen someone wield such a weapon before.

"What jutsu is that?" The snake-eyed man asked curiously, letting his thirst for knowledge get the better of him when he should be focusing on the fight. He eyed the black scythe, imagining himself using the weapon of death to cut down his enemies.

"What do you want?" Naruto countered before slashing the scythe through the air, cutting Orochimaru across the face. The slick black haired ninja hissed in pain and jumped out of the weapons range.

From the distance everyone heard the telltale sound of foot falls. Or more precisely, three pairs of foot falls. "Seems my time is up." The man hissed as he eyed the source of the sound that represented his timer. Each foot step indicated his remaining time here if he wanted to avoid complications, "My name is Orochimaru, and if you want to see me again you have to pass the exams."

With that Orochimaru's neck extended rapidly, so fast in fact that no one but Naruto noticed. His neck stretched as if it was made of rubber, a sickening sight, showing just how much of a monster Orochimaru is. As the snake man's head extended towards Sasuke, Naruto intersected by throwing his scythe once more. It projected through the air and implanted itself into a tree, stopping Orochimaru's progress towards the rookie Uchiha.

Orochimaru hissed his annoyance, but the footsteps were too close for his to do anything now. The snake ninja hated that there wasn't enough time to implant his curse on the boy and the fact that there was no time to find any more information about Naruto's power. Though if he was caught, he wouldn't be able to do these things in the future, so instead his head retracted back to its body and sunk into the ground.

The scythe, which was still implanted in the tree, vanished and the dark aura that surrounded Naruto dispersed with it. This caused the blond haired boy to fall to the ground in exhaustion.

Moments later the examiner, the Hokage, and Kakashi burst into the clearing that the three rookies sat in. The children panted with the exertion it took to fight off Orochimaru.

"Are you alright?" The examiner asked.

Naruto stared at them before saying. "We are fine. This is an exam, what are you doing here."

"We felt a very powerful chakra here and discovered that an S-class missing-nin had infiltrated." The Hokage explained as he looked over Naruto suspiciously. The damn old man always knew how to read him like an open book.

"Orochimaru... He left." Naruto said shortly. Nevertheless, Sakura felt the need to say more.

The pink haired girl started saying, "He was after something. He wanted Sasuke. That much was obvious."

"What makes you think that, Sakura?" Kakashi asked.

"Just before you got here, Orochimaru tried to attack Sasuke! And he used one of his snakes to try and distract Naruto, but Naruto used his scy-."

"Enough, Sakura!" Naruto nearly shouted. "Although I agree with you that he was after Sasuke, we are running out of time and have an exam to complete." Naruto was hoping that the girl got the message that she should not continue that sentence. It was enough trouble that most of the village knows about the Ninetails, if they found out that Naruto had other unusual abilities he might just end up as one of the councils weapons. He didn't want that. Who would?

"Y-Yes, of course, you may continue with the exam." The female exam instructor said before looking at Kakashi and the Hokage, then they were gone. Running back through the forest and away from the chunin candidates.

In the forest everything was eerily silent, it was as if the sound had been sucked out of the surrounds: no trees rustled in the wind, no animals ran through the woods. Where was all the sound?

Then it came, the first sound that team seven heard since the group of older ninja left them. It was the crunch of leaves. The group of three turned around to witness a squirrel as it ran across their path then up a tree, quick to disappear into the brush.

Several throwing knives flew from the bushes and before Naruto could even blink, there was a kunai sticking out from his right shoulder. The dull stinging burn radiated from the wound, Naruto instinctively gritted his teeth and grunted in pain as he hovered his hand over the wound, resisting the urge to pull it out. Sasuke had been lucky enough and managed to get away with a simple slice by the bland, at least he had avoided getting impaled by one. The three turned towards the opposing direction where the knives had come from and had each gotten into similar defensive stances.

A voice spoke with mirth from the bushes. "Hehe, just fought and know you must fight again. This won't be as fun. Will it, Sasuke-kun?"

"We want to fight you." The ninja bound in bandages said. His head was tilted to one side, he eyes were lone, black pupils and on his back was a pelt of spiky fur.

"What!" Sakura suddenly shouted in anger and frustration. She felt useless. "What are you talking about? Are you doing this because of Orochimaru? What is his purpose?" she asked with exasperation.

"Hmm," The bandaged, sound-nin hummed, ignoring the pink haired kunoichi, "I wonder what that man is thinking. Your team doesn't seem to be hurt, so why would he leave you uninjured?"

"Oh well." The other sound ninja shrugged. "It doesn't matter, it just means that we can kill them instead."

The two sound ninjas sprinted toward the three rookies. Naruto, despite his shoulder injury, stood in front of Sakura knowing full well that she would not be able to protect herself efficiently enough. Naruto made a vow to himself that he wouldn't summon the scythe in this fight. He couldn't. Bringing the weapon out once was dangerous enough but a second time... Naruto didn't want to know what the consequences would be. No one could know about his power.

But now three people did.

"Leaf spinning wind!" A ninja called as he dove out of the trees and defended the exhausted young ninja's. The sound-nin were pushed back, taken by surprise.

"Who are you?" Questioned the man that looked more like an Egyptian mummy than a living human being.

The thick-browed ninja introduced himself almost cheerfully as the leaves flowed in the wind. "The beautiful green beast of the Hidden Leaf," He flipped his hair as the epic moment drawled out, "Rock Lee."

"Oh?" Said a third unknown voice. This time it was female. Out of the trees came a female sound-nin with long black hair and pale eye with a matching outfit theme as her two teammates.

"Oh well." The bandaged ninja sighed with a shrug of the shoulders, "Zaku, you can have Sasuke-kun. I'll take care of the others." With this, the sound ninja ran at Lee. Although he was young, Lee was very advanced in the art of taijutsu. The spandex clad boy had great strength and speed, however, the sound ninja's abilities bested him by far. He was much more experienced than Lee, and the young green beast of the Hidden Leaf was defeated, but the mummy had not won without any wounds of his own.

Just as the finishing blow was about to be drawn onto Lee, Sakura leaped around Naruto's body and hurled her kunai towards the enemy. With that as a distraction, she ran towards them forming a hand sign. As the he went to strike Sakura, her body vanished and in its place was a wooden tree log.

Meanwhile, during Lee and Sakura's fight, Zaku took his chance and went for Sasuke. Naruto yanked the kunai embed in his shoulder and turned towards the Sound kunochi that was rushing towards his bleeding battle-ready figure.

Sakura hurled kunai after kunai at her enemy, while Lee took advantage of the distraction and got in close to cause some damage of his own. Sasuke had activated his sharingan and used the fire jutsu his father had taught him so long ago against the enemy. Naruto, although injured, managed (without using the abilities of his past lives) to wound his opponent greatly with the kunai. The female sound-nin now clutched on to her broken arm as blood slowly dripped from her moth due to the blood stained wound on her stomach with the knife implanted in her.

Naruto formed a hand sign and created ten more shadow clones, each seemed more real than the ones before it. One clone dived for the woman only to be destroyed, but this allowed for another to hit her with a punch or a kick strong enough to send the dark haired ninja on her knees. Naruto wouldn't kill her, he could never sink to such a level. The blond would simply knock her out for now so she won't get in the way again.

Minutes later Naruto and his clones delivered the final blow and the black haired, ninja collapsed. The ground of the green-grassed clearing was now splashed with blood and as the whiskered boy turned to look at his companions it was obvious that they were struggling with their opponents. The bandaged-nin was covered in wounds but so were Lee and Sakura. Zaku appeared to only have small, minor wounds while Sasuke panted, hands on his knees. They wouldn't be able to keep this up for long.

He could use that. The Innocence.

No! Naruto shook himself mentally. He wouldn't use his powers from his previous lives, no matter how tempting it is. After using it twice, a third would be too much. Especially in a world where these type of abilities are not supposed to exist. Not to mention that Sasuke would probably hate him for interrupting his fight and showing the Uchiha up. And, as harsh as it sounded, Sakura needed this fight. She had to learn from this fight that she won't always be protected, that she must grow strong alongside us. So Naruto decided to wait and watch the outcomes of these fights. However, he also decided that he wouldn't let his team die, he would only fight if they were in dire need of help.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the fight between the sand-nin's and the hidden rain-nins were in tight battle. And of course with Gaara's ultimate defense, the three ninja of the Village Hidden in the Rain didn't stand a chance.

They had made it. As the blond turned towards his team mates, he couldn't believe the fact that they had made it through the Forest of Death. The rookie team had come out a little more worse for wear than the other teams, but that just meant that they a fought better than those who hadn't made it this far and that their struggling had made their own team that much stronger.

Yes, struggles are what life is made of and, despite what the people around him think, the blue-eyed boy had to face a hell of a lot of them.

Sakura had cut her hair during the fight with the bandaged sound-nin, when this happened Naruto had watched in amazement. The spiky haired boy didn't think that any girl would do that... But then again Lenalee did have her hair burned off during a fight. Was that the same thing? Eh, close enough.

The blond felt a sudden pang in his chest as he thought of his past. She was one of the few that didn't betray him, yet in that world, where Innocence exists, she had probably forgotten about him... Or she may have even passed into the finality that the young boy has wished from the very beginning of this endless loop.

As team seven looked around them, only seven teams had passed in total: there was team Asuma, team Kurenai, team Guy, along with other teams from other villages that Naruto didn't recognize.

Finally out of the forest, Sakura now yanked irritably at her hair, trying to get used to the length. The last time she had had her hair this short was when she was six or seven. The pink-haired girl then glanced sideways at the onyx eyed Uchiha, now that she has short hair Sasuke probably won't like her. After all, it was common knowledge that Sasuke only like girls with long hair.

**Please review- It's the only thing that keeps me going! (she cries dramatically!)**


	5. Possible Impossibility

**Beta's: SharetheBook and Tifer**

**I hope you like the chapter because I really enjoyed writing this one. Please review, I would love you read what you think of it.**

**Chapter 5**

Naruto Uzumaki wasn't selfish, attention seeking, or conceded. He always made sure that he was self-sufficient and independent because he couldn't rely on anyone else. He definitely wouldn't label himself as attention seeking, but as he looked around he couldn't help but silently wish that there was more people in the crowd cheering him on. They were all cheering for his opponent aside from his team who watched in silence and Hinata, who shyly and silently prayed for him. Odd if you consider that she would focus more on him than her own teammate, Kiba.

Kiba Inuzuka. One of the rookie 9 who had made it to the preliminaries of the first exam. Now here he stood ready for battle in front of Naruto as opponents. If the blonde remembered correctly, Kiba's personality and fighting style are complimented by his wild appearance. Kiba had messy brown hair, like most of his clan, sharp black eyes with vertical slit-like pupils, pronounced canine teeth, and nails that he can easily change into claws with a flick of the wrist. He also had the distinctive red fang markings that labeled him of the Inuzuka clan on each side of his face. Being from that particular clan, of course, meant that Kiba was short-tempered and impulsive, which Naruto could use to his advantage. If he played his cards right.

From the barrier around the fighting arena, Hinata stood anxiously chewing on her bottom lip as she stared down at Naruto. 'He is strong', she thought to herself, 'He will win'. However, as she glanced around herself it was obvious that no one else had any faith in the blue-eyed boy, even Naruto's teammate Sasuke, who the blonde had cheered on, didn't show any faith in him. Yet, the white-eyed girl thought bitterly that it would probably surprise anyone if Naruto passed, considering that not even his team leader hadn't tried to train him.

The cheering, that was pretty much chants of 'KIBA! KIBA! KIBA!' suddenly went silent as the fight had officially started, and with his impulsive nature, Kiba didn't hesitate to begin. The Inuzuka duplicated himself into his canine companion, Akamaru, and launched himself towards Naruto. As the two went head on with their attack, they hardly had time to relish in their success when their target had poofed into a wooden log.

Growling in frustration, Kiba spun around with his nose to the air, frantically seeking out his opponent.

There!

Naruto was in the corner of the arena blending into the shadows. Hah, trying to be clever. Anyone could make a substitute. Kiba and Akamaru again charged at their opponent with haste, who had once more disappeared into a poof of smoke, but before either attackers could stop themselves, they crashed into the solid wall, causing Kiba to revert back to his original human form. He crashed onto the floor with Akamaru at his side, and Kiba swiftly leaped back to his feet as though he had not just ran into a wall.

Naruto walked out of the shadows from the opposite corner with a sly look on his face and a hinting smile. "You missed." He taunted with an even voice.

In another corner came another Naruto, sighing with exaggeration, and excitement shining in his bright eyes. "Again!"

A third blond haired, blue eyed boy yawned, looking thoroughly bored from the other corner of the arena. "When are we going to get some action?"

This only served to flare Kiba's anger, just as Naruto had hoped it would. Stupidity combined with a huge sense of superiority and ego will only result in arrogant mistakes. Mistakes that Naruto was hoping for so he can win this fight without his 'ninja' abilities.

"You'll regret that," growls a furious Kiba. "Come on, Akamaru!" The pair ran out of their corner. Kiba pulled out three smoke bombs, tossing them each in front of each of the three Naruto's. A burst of purple smoke from each bombs blinded Naruto, but this caused no problem. His other senses worked perfectly fine, despite his loss of sight.

Closing his eyes, Naruto concentrated to find a sound or feeling his adversary's chakra. He dodged, feeling the wind bend around the fist that was aimed at his face. Jumping back, his skimmed the punch coming towards his stomach. Bending forward, he let the kick aimed at his back to breeze over his head. The blond continued to maneuver away from the constant attacks that Kiba sent his way until, finally the smoke disperse. The whole time Naruto kept his face expressionless in hopes of taunting the Inuzuka.

When Naruto saw Kiba and Akamaru's eyes, burning red with rage and frustration, he knew that the time was now. One easily calculative blow will end this fight, and the combatant in front of him was so high on his own emotion that he wouldn't even see it coming. Naruto knew exactly where to hit, after all, he had been rendered unconscious many times with the same attack, the back of the neck.

Kiba was thinking along the same lines, pulling out eight throwing stars between each of his fingers. He had to finish this and soon. He gazed anticlimactically at the blond in front of him, and threw all the throwing stars at Naruto at a speed that was near impossible to master as a genin.

The stars sliced through the air radiating blood lust, while all the blue-eyed boy did was allow a smirk to grace his face, then ran with ninja-like speed towards the deadly stars. The entire audience was under the impression that Naruto was either crazy or suicidal for running towards not just one weapons, but eight, that were rocketing towards him. However, their leering eyes soon widened in surprise as Naruto weaved through the weapons as if they were nothing more than stones thrown by a civilian child. The boy took advantage of his short height and ducked out of Kiba's vision then popped out behind him in a moment's notice and whacked the fanged genin on the back of the neck. Almost simultaneously, the defeated combatant suck to the floor motionlessly…

Naruto had won.

No one, aside from Hinata, was expecting this result. In fact the crowd was so shocked that they had forgotten to cheer for the winner at the end of the match. This, of course, Naruto didn't mind. He didn't want their half-hearts applause anyway. So he put his hands behind his head, leaving the arena and making his way back to his team at a leisurely pace.

"How- How did you do that?" Sakura asked, completely startled. The shock of Naruto's achievement written all over her features.

"Well, if Kakashi wasn't going to train me, I decided to train myself. I watched the other Hidden Leaf Nin training and used some of their methods." Naruto stated, not really wanting to go into any detail. The sheer overreacted shock everyone was experiencing was a small burn to his pride. While it was true that he had watched other ninja train but he didn't apply all of the ninja methods to his training- no, instead he may have added some of the military training he had received as Ryner Lute.

Ignoring the look his team mates are giving him, Naruto turned back to the next match: Temari of the Sand vs. Shikamaru Nara.

As the two opponents stepped into the arena, Naruto pulled in a sharp breath of his own shock.

Naruto would never admit to it but he was trapped in his own mind. The blond has built his walls so high that he couldn't climb over them, or see the top of them for that matter. The walls are so strong that no one could tear them down. All the blue-eyed boy could see was his past bleeding into his present. All he could see was that, eventually, he will be betrayed again, he will be killed again and he will be reborn again.

Over each of his lives he had created this impenetrable defense against the life that he knew he would live, that was until he saw her...

Was it possible for her to be here? No, it wasn't. He himself being here was possible. Is it possible for her to remember him? Probably not, she wouldn't even recognize him if she could. However, Naruto did know that it was her.

Eris.

Sure her hair was no longer golden blond but her smile still held that sly confidence of hers. Her sky blue eyes were now a dark navy blue, but her loud-mouthed attitude was still the same. And added to this was her habit of wielding ridiculously large weapons. First it was a sword almost as tall as her body and now it was a fan that was just as huge.

Naruto had no doubt about it... Temari was Eris. She just doesn't remember it...


	6. The Hyuugas

**Chapter 6**

**(Beta-ed by Tifer) **

Naruto stared fixedly at the girl in the area. Eris, his mind called longingly. What had happened to her after he had been killed? Did she move on? Did she continue to follow Sion?

"If you died... you know, I'd be lonely." Eris' voice from the past whispered. Yes, he had left her all alone and that made him feel tediously guilty.

On the battle arena, Shikamaru looked at his opponent. To everyone else he appeared as if he was bored and held no interest in what was about to happen, however he was really calculating. His mind was constantly running through the questions: what was her weakness? Why did she carry such a heavy weapon? Wouldn't that just slow her down?

Then Shikamaru saw it. In her eyes he saw that she had not interest nor determination to actually fight. He could practically envision her baling after the fight after she did something... but what? Was she just going to put on a show and then bale when she had had enough? Or was it a distraction?

Either way, the Ninga concluded as he raised his hand into the air, if she was not willing to fight with all she had then he wasn't going to waste his energy on her. "I give up." Shikamaru called out in a bored tone, leaving the audience gape in shock.

The leader of Team 10, Asuma Sarutobi, shaking his head. You couldn't force Shikamaru into doing something, but he had to find a away to motivate the young Genin.

The rest of the matches went on with out an suspiciousness. However Naruto knew that Shikamaru wouldn't have given up on a match without a significant reason so, instead of watching the other matches wish the team mates that would so readily abandon him, Naruto went in search of the genius Nara.

He found them in the stands with the other members of his team: Choji, Ino and Asuma. With his unenthusiastic expression on his face, the young Ninja gazed at his surrounds with disinterest. However they would occasionally flicker to the Hidden Sand Ninjas.

"Hey, Shikamaru!" Naruto shouted louder than needed, adopting his 'dead-last' persona.

Shikamaru turned to Naruto with a raised eyebrow, the only sign of interest the boy had shown in a while.

Naruto walked over to him so that they were close enough that no one would be able to hear their conversation. "Why did you give up the match?"

The question was answered with a shrugged and silence followed the gesture. Then after a little while longer Shikamaru said, "You are more observant than you let people believe you are."

This caused Naruto to smile slightly, "that didn't stop you from figuring me out, did it?"

"You almost had me." There was another long, drawn out pause, before Shikamaru said, "she was not going to fight me seriously."

This caused Naruto to frown and turn his gaze to the area where Kankuro of the Villiage Hidden in the Sand and a Hidden Leaf Ninja were fighting. Eris would have never did that, so why would Temari. Eris believed that if someone wanted a fight then it was her duty to beat the crap out of them. So... So maybe they were not the same. Maybe Eris has grown to become Temari and she was no longer the person he remembered her to be.

Or it could be that the person that she was willing to 'not fight for' was much more important than her belief of putting men in their place. Although the only person her could think of that Eris would protect so strongly was those she saw as family.

"Something is going to happen, isn't it?" muttered Naruto, finally stopping his thoughts.

"Yeah," came Shikamaru's disinterested answer.

Then Naruto shivered as he saw the puppet that Kankuro had been carrying around with him. There was something definitely wrong with the Sand Siblings, and Naruto would bet anything that Gaara was the leader of it.

A Chunin walked into the arena once the Sand Ninja had defeated his opponent, announced that the fifth match will begin now: it was Sakura against Ino. This, of course, peaked Naruto's curiosity. Naruto wanted to she how far Sakura had come in her training with Kakashi and whether the challenge in the last task had changed her at all.

The intensity of the battle between two best friends had all of the audiance hooked into the fight. However Naruto was disappointed when Sakura fell under Ino's mind transfer Gestu and withdrew herself. He thought that maybe if he cheered for her then she may have fought back, but then he decided against it. He saw no point in encouraging someone who didn't do the same for him.

The matches went on and on and Naruto stared at the centre of the arena with increasing disinterest, until finally there was a battle worth watching: Neji vs. Hinata.

Naruto didn't know whether this was the worst pairing ever or the best. While Hinata didn't have her cousins genius and strength when it comes to fighting she did have more will power than she ever gave her self credit for. In fact, Naruto would bet all his money that Hinata's one probably with fighting was that she as so unwilling to hurt another...

This showed in her fighting. Her half strength hits. The fact that she faultered just before she delivered a possibly fatal hit. However the worst thing was that none of her family called out to her in the crowd, just like him, no one wished for her to win.

So when Hinata hit the floor painfully, Naruto snapped. "You can do it!" he shouted not caring who looked at him.

His shouted, that raised above the cheers for Neji caused everyone to go silent and Hinata turned to look at Naruto. She looked so defeated and resigned to her fate.

"Ignore them," he said firmly as he no longer needed to shout. "Your parents, your family and friends are not worth a single thought in your head if they are not willing to cheer for you when you need it most. So, ignore them! You can do anything, you are stronger than anyone gives you credit for, so don't let them drag you down with their own pessemistic and corruptive thoughts."

Tears now fell from the Hyuga heir's eyes and she smiled at Naruto and turned to face Neji. However the battle did not continue...

"What are you saying?" demanded Hiashi Hyuga, Hinata's father and the girl in the area cringed a little at the harshness in his voice. He had long black hair and featureless eyes and his stiff body language almost screamed of his strict and aggressive manner.

"I am saying that you are no way near the parent that you should be," scoffed Naruto, not really caring if he roused the temper of the Hyuga Clan leader.

"Are you telling me how to raise my daughter!"

"No, I am not. Never in my life have I had a parent nor a parental figure, so excuse me if this opinion is a bit off... However, I was lead to believe, or more precisely, I was told that a parent is suppose to care for you. They are not suppose to be the cause of your pain, they are suppose to take it away. They are suppose to tell you that everything is going to be alright and that it is okay to be afraid, not be the one that they are afraid of. But most importantly, they are suppose to love you no matter what... I see no love in your eyes, Sir. All I see is a desire to control and manipulate everything around you. So let me tell you this... With the way you are going, when you die, no one will cry for you, no one will remember you fondly, you will just a a space needing to be filled!"

Hiashi growled in anger, how dare this child speak to him in such a manner! He turned, not giving the blonde brat behind him a response, because he would not demean himself to argue with a child. The head of the clan left the building seething in anger, leaving behind his daughter with her injuries, not caring whether she was in pain or not.

Back inside, Naruto jumped soundlessly into the arena next to Hinata. Her face was brushed and red, her right hand was clutching her limp broken arm. However despite the pain and sorrow in her eyes, she smiled softly at the Blond with respect and affection. In that moment Naruto felt a surge of kinship for the silver-eyed girl.

Suddenly she face reddened. "U-um…" Hinata began, "T-thank you, Naruto-kun…" she poked her fingers together and avoided eye contact.

Naruto gave her a small smile, "Don't mention it, I know what it can be like to have no one on your side."

Hinata nodded in agreement wincing in pain as her injuries still bothered her.

Naruto scrunched his eyebrows with worry, "Do you need the medical ninja's to take a look at you?"

"N-no…I should be fine." She shook her head.

Naruto didn't believe that for a second and it was then that he realized that, despite all his powers that he had gained over his lives, he didn't have the power to heal her physical injuries. So, raising his eyebrow in a do-not-question-me look, the blue-eyed boy pointed to a medical ninja and said, "Go, there is no point for you to be in pointless pain."

For a second Hinata looked like she was going to argue with him and , for a second, Naruto wished that she way at least he knew that her father had not broken her completely. After all, you shouldn't worry when people argue with you, worry when they stop because it means there's nothing left to fight for. Instead Hinata turned her back to him and walked away.

With a sigh, Naruto watched Hinata go and then turned to the door. He was going to find Temari and find out what was going on. Deep down the blond knew there was something wrong because Eris would never back out from a fight.


	7. The Box

Hey, I am sorry! This chapter was a long time coming... However, now that all of my exams are over, I have plenty of time to update more frequently. I am actually feeling kind of sorry for my beta ;-) Anyway I can already tell I am going to be absolutely bored for a while, especially since I finished all of my exams earlier than all of my friends. To be honest, it has only been one day, and I am already driving my brother crazy with my boredom!

I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review (it is always good to read them).

**Chapter 7**

He had found the three Ninja's in the backroom close to the arena. Eri- …Temari and the Doll ninja were whispering quietly to each other whilst the red haired boy leaned on the wall behind the two. Naruto didn't know why but there was something in the red-haired boy's eyes that reminded him so much of himself. Walking further into the room Naruto could see it. The shadows of betrayal and the darkness of giving up.

As he saw that look, Naruto decided that he would drop the mask that he always held while in public, he was going to go in and show Gaara those very same eyes. The light in Naruto's azure blue eyes suddenly went out as he struts into the room.

All three siblings looked up to the new presence in the doorway and the two older sand siblings flinched and tensed away. Naruto's eyes were so cold and...dead. So much like their brothers eyes, yet the darkness seemed older than that. The trio stared at the blond ninja before them. He wore baggy black pants with hems that clung to his upper ankle, making it easier for him to run. A deep, navy blue, long sleeved shirt that was loose enough to be comfortable but tight enough to not get in the way of difficult maneuvers, and a headband tied around his forehead.

"I suggest that whatever you are planning to do should be forgotten. Right now."

Temari crossed her arms defensively over her light purple clad chest, and stuck her chin out in defiance, replied back, "What makes you think we are planning anything?"

Naruto grinned in a way that looked like he was baring his teeth viciously, "Because there is no way you would've thrown a fight. Your actions in the arena immediately told me that you were conserving your energy, which wouldn't make sense unless you were planning something." There was a long pause before Naruto continued. "If you are planning something that would potentially hurt the village, I will have to defeat you."

"You would protect a village that hates you?" Gaara sneered in both disgust and anger. "Your eyes mirror mine, so why should you care what we do to this place?"

"Because I made a deal,." he replied as though he were reciting a fact. "As long as the current Hokage is alive then I will help him." No one, not even the Hokage himself, knew the extent of Naruto's loyalty. He would aid the elderly man that had become so close to family to him, the only one who showed anything but scorn, fear and resentment. More recently he discovered Hinata showed concern for him, so this made two people that Naruto would aid and protect. "I suggest you heed my warning," said lowly Naruto in monotone before turning his back on them and heading towards the door.

Suddenly, the blond turned around once again, staring straight at Temari. His eyes reminded her of someone she used to know, but she could not place him, not in the memories of her present life. Then Naruto shifts gears, putting his mask back up quickly, he stretched dramatically with a wide yawn, "Don't make me have to mar that pretty face."

This cause Temari to stiffen in shock and frowned; she had heard those words before. Yes, she knew those words from far in the past, but who was saying them? When were they said to her? She recalled a blurry faced man wearing blue and white, with a lazy smile gracing his face. _'It also would have been an excellent chance to scorch you to cinders. So you can forgive me if I can't bring myself a mar that pretty face.'_

When Temari finally dragged herself out of her mind, Naruto was gone and brothers still planned on attacking the Leaf Village. However something inside Temari told her that if they went through with the plan something bad was going to happen. It was like a small tingle, as if her unconscious was trying to tell her something, remind her of something. Something to do with the blond haired, blue eyed boy whose eyes were so familiar to her. She couldn't stop the attack, it had to be done. Gaara wanted it and Gaara always got what he wanted - if he didn't then there would be unpleasant consequences.

As Naruto walked back to Hinata, he had unconsciously outwardly expressed some of Ryner Lute's habits. He had his hands folded behind the back of his neck and he yawned almost regularly. When he realized he was doing this he got annoyed. Immediately stopping, the blue eyed boy furrowed his brow, it had been a long time since he had dropped his guard like that. He could almost feel his other lives pushing to the surface, so, taking a deep breath, Naruto began to shove them back behind his emotional walls.

It seemed, the blond amused to himself, that with each life he lived the harder it become to hold them back. He was like a box and with every life a new toy, a new person, was stuffed into the box. Eventually the box will over flow and the contents will come spilling out. This made Naruto snort - the contents of his box were already spilling out.

From the outside, the medic tent was an asparagus green. It was held down but four ropes attached to each corner of the material. On the inside there was rows of futons covered in a single sheet and two very uncomfortable looking stalls beside every other one. Clean blankets were folded on a table by the only entrance/exit. To his left Naruto stopped Hinata sitting on a futon, her hands placed gently in her lap, the medic hovering over her disinfecting her wounds.

"Hinata!" he shouted happily as he strode towards her. The black haired girl glanced up and flushed red, giving him a shy smile. Naruto grinned at her coming to a decision, if her father wasn't going to look after her properly then he would. The girl is so gentle that she deserves to be treated well and looked after properly. Even if that meant defending her against Temari/ Eris.

When Naruto returned to the arena with Hinata by his side, the last of the matches had already started and to his surprise Gaara and Sasuke were being called. The blond easily blocked out the crowd as they cheered and quickly zoned in on the Uchiha, grabbing him before he could walked into the battle area.

"Sasuke you can't fight him," The blue eyed boy tried to reason.

However the last Uchiha did not listen to him. "Of course I can, Naruto, and I will." His team mate glared at him with cold black eyes, but Naruto was unfazed.

"You don't understand, Sasuke. He will kill you. He has no morals and doesn't follow any code of the ninja. He has given up on everything: his life, his family, his village, himself... everything."

"And how do you know that?" Sasuke sneered ripping his arm out of the grip. "Every ninja has a code!" Naruto had to bit dawn on his tongue to stop himself from shouting at how idiotically naive that statement was, but, then again, the Uchiha was a child who is so inexperienced in the world when compared to the blond boy.

"You would understand, so stop being a bastard and listen for once." He didn't. So, as the Uchiha walked into the arena, Naruto shouted, "Fine. I suggest if you don't want to die then aim to kill at any means necessary."

"Sasuke, at hearing those words, had to repress a shiver at the cold determination of Naruto's voice. He had never heard the blond speak like that before. Naruto had mostly kept a blank face and a monotone voice and occasionally would plaster on a smile, but never had he been so... inevitable. For some reason, the Uchiha felt the sudden need to run out of arena and when he finally looked into the eyes of his opponent, he saw what Naruto was telling him. The urge to flee grew.

Although the boy was shorter than average males, his pale green-blue eyes were pupil-less with tanuki-like black eye rings. It was in those eyes that Sasuke saw death.

"Back in the stands, Sakura sat beside her Sensei, Kakashi.

"Sensei, do you think Sasuke will win?" the pink haired girl asked chewing nervously on her lip. Although she wasn't a well train ninja, yet she could sense the tension between her team mate and the Sand ninja.

"You have nothing to worry about," he said. Sakura hasn't seen him this serious since their trip to the land of waves. "Sasuke and I haven't been training for nothing you know."

"Yes..." someone suddenly spoke from behind the two ninja, "You didn't abandon the other two members of your team to train only one of them, just so he could lose."

"Naruto-" Kakashi started but gave up when he saw the blonds face blank and impassive. There was nothing he could do now, he would just have to try and make it up to the boy later.

Kakashi couldn't have known that later would never come.

From the corner of his eyes Naruto glanced at a black clad figure in an animal mask just visible inside the vents, _'one'_, he noted to himself. '_Two'_, he though as he spotted another three rows in front of him. '_Three, four…five…six, seven, and eight'_. There were eight of them, and with a peek at Kakashi, Naruto knew that his Sensei saw them too. What were they thinking? Eight Abu black ops ninja in a stadium this large was not near enough.

As the cheering erupted once more, the Sasuke vs Gaara battle began.

Arms crossed over his chest, Naruto watched the match with a critical eye and found that Sasuke was significantly more trained than he had been, however it just made the blatant favoritism Kakashi showed to one third of the team even more obvious. The blond actually raised his eyebrows in surprise when Sasuke created the blue lightning. A physical manifestation of his chakra.

Naruto barely listened to Guy Sensei's explanation about the chidori or the lightning blade, but instead focused on the intense match. The man was tall and well-built with high cheek-bones, thick eyebrows and black hair cut in a bowl style. Every time Guy was near it took all of the blonde's will power not to cringe and run the other way.

Back in the battle arena there was a short silence after Sasuke had hit the sand ninja, then all hell broke loose.

Gaara's screams echoed through the arena and a giant arm of sand materialized. The dome of sand protecting Gaara cracked and crumbled and the Sand ninja began panting breathlessly, almost as if he was in pain.

As everyone eyes were fixated on the two fighters before them drowsiness began to seep into the audiences senses. Their minds were becoming dizzy and light and it was only when Hinata's head hit Naruto's shoulder did he realize that Genjutsu was being used. Coping Kakashi and Guy, the blond ninja quickly released himself from the droopy-eyed feeling. So, it had begun...

**BOOM!  
**

"Naruto, stay here!" Kakashi ordered with caution, making Naruto frown. Then the three ninja were suddenly faced with five enemy ninja.

Staying there wasn't really an option anymore, especially since four of the enemies charged towards Kakashi and Guy and the fifth began running towards him.

As the black figure rushed toward him, Naruto barely dodged as a kunai was thrown at him. The weapon implanted itself into the back of the blonds chair and Naruto watched in horror as the explosive tag went off. No! Hinata was caught in the cross fire!

Naruto's heart beat through his chest and he saw _**red**_.


End file.
